A special meeting was held on Tuesday with the Deputy Commissioners under the initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to control the pollution of brick kilns that pollute the country's environment, stop illegal brick kilns and prevent the use of single use plastic and illegal polythene. Secretary of the ministry Dr Farhina Ahmed presided over the meeting held in the conference room of the ministry. Additional Secretary (Environment) Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, Additional Secretary (Environmental Pollution Control) Mizanur Rahaman ndc, Director General of the Department of Environment Dr. Abdul Hamid and senior officials of the Ministry and Department were present in the meeting. The Deputy Commissioners of 64 districts of the country and the field level officers of the Department of Environment were connected virtually. Dr Syed Shahjahan Ahmed, Deputy Secretary of Environmental Pollution Control Section of the Ministry, presented the working papers of the meeting along with the amount of damage due to the pollution of brick kilns and measures taken against illegal brick kilns.
In the meeting, Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed said, to ensure food security of the country, the use of agricultural soil in brick kilns, destruction of agricultural land must be stopped. He called upon the Deputy Commissioners to take strict legal action against illegal and environment polluting brick kilns including cutting down trees and burning wood as fuel for brick kilns.
He directed the Director General of the Department of Environment to take necessary steps to ensure the use of 100 percent environment-friendly block bricks in all government works by the year 2025 as per the target fixed by the government. In order to involve all the stakeholders to prevent various types of pollution including brick kilns, she instructed the Department of Environment to organize awareness meetings in all the districts of the country on an urgent basis.
In the meeting, it was decided to strengthen the regular enforcement and mobile court activities conducted by the Department of Environment and the District Administration to stop the production and use of polythene shopping bags and the marketing of the wrappers which have been banned by the government. It was decided to take necessary initiatives to implement the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2021 for the proper management of solid waste. In addition, instructions were given to implement the three-year action plan to stop the use of single-use plastic in 40 upazilas of 12 districts of the coastal region on an urgent basis.
In the meeting, the officials of the ministry and the Department and the Deputy Commissioners expressed their views on taking effective measures to stop illegal brick kilns and plastic, polythene. They also requested to update the relevant laws and regulations and solve some of the existing problems. Khalilur Rahman, President of Bangladesh Brick Kiln Owners Association, gave a speech by highlighting the various problems of brick kilns and vowing to comply with the relevant regulations.
